This is The Black Urbanist Weekly with Kristen Jeffers, an email newsletter that highlights the Black Queer Feminist Urbanist thoughts and commentary of me, Kristen E. Jeffers, an internationally-known urban planner, fiber designer, and contributing editor. Think of this as an editorial page column, but directly in your email.

If you’re new here, we normally have six sections: Story of the Week; The Principle Corner; By the Way; On the Shelf, On the Playlist, and Before You Go. You can read all archives right here, on my homepage in our normal format. We also normally drop on Fridays.

However, you might have noticed we skipped a week. It was not my intention, but when I released my last post, something shifted in my brain. A DISC ALSO SHIFTED IN MY BACK. On Juneteenth of all days. So, I started thinking hard through the pain and I came up with some ideas.

First, I’m going to use some room in my budget for July and August to hire an editorial and research assistant. If that could be you, please send over a resume and cover letter (you can reply to this email with them). I will be holding resumes for future opportunities or in case a first choice doesn’t work out. The rate is $250 weekly, paid biweekly and you’ll be a 1099 contractor. If things work out financially as a result of bringing you on, there’s a potential that this could become a more long-term contract or permanent job. More details in the Before You Go Section

Second, so I can work on these special projects and create the new systems I want to create with this assistant AND REST MY BACK, we will be going biweekly through July and August. We’ll be working together to pack these emails + an audio/video component, with lots of great stories from me and useful information. They’ll also help me get my book ready, so you’ll finally get that in your hands.

So, after today, I won’t see you again in my inbox until July 14th, as we resume our normal Friday schedule. And now, my story of the week, my principle of the week, and my favorite pop culture things of the week.

Story of the Week: Mapping to the Media

It’s a Friday evening in the fall of 2004.

We’re on the East Campus of NC State University and at 4:30 pm, we are let loose from our big lecture on the foundations of communication.

Our professor is probably about to head to his office and prepare for another Saturday afternoon or evening being the football voice of the Wolfpack at Carter-Finley Stadium.

It’s my last class of the day and the week. I’m about to make a quick trip to my dorm room in Welch Hall, drop off my books, and depending on my mood, I would be headed to one of the following:

— Clark Hall, for my meal plan dinner, and catch up on the day’s Technician, our student newspaper, which while online, was ubiquitous in print, five days a week and free.

— The campus cinema in Witherspoon Hall for a free or low-cost movie, via Talley Student Center for its on-campus (and on meal plan) Taco Bell.

— What’s now known as The Village, to use my newly minted Blockbuster card of my own

— Mission Valley Cinema, via the Wolfline, passing by the WRAL headquarters, to see the newest movies (or an even longer stretch to the Carmike Cinema, which was near our old Kmart).

— — The Record Exchange on Hillsborough Street, with their dollar DVDS, and what was then the Independent Weekly tucked under my arm, with listings of everything else I could do, as long as I had a CAT bus pass, access to a cab or a friend’s car or even Amtrak, although, at this point in my life, I wasn’t taking bus and train trips outside of the Triangle region outside of a group or family.

The throughline in all of this was despite me thinking that media was just a cute hobby (yes, I even said that about my DJ set at the college radio that’s now part of the official WKNC history books), media was always there, nudging me on, helping me to tell the first story of my being and the story I’ve been telling you on these pages.

And of course, those paper maps that my dad brought home from his night job delivering our hometown newspaper to all the truck stops so it would be fresh in the morning.

Plus my coursework in a social science-based communication and organizational behavior degree program, on the cusp of the social media revolution, on a campus with 1TB speeds of Web 1.0 internet and The Facebook as a fun gathering place and our own The Wolf Web with the real campus tea.

And now, I’m sitting here, after 15 years of doing professional digital communication work, which started in two offices in the engineering department, that had paid hours (like $15/hr type paid hours), and pretty awesome mentors who still keep up with me today (I know at least two of you are regular readers).

Being able to offer mentorship and partnership in this vision is a joy. It won’t all be perfect, but believe me, we will leverage the power of the press to continue this joy and liberation movement.

The Principle Corner

In this section, we step away from the literary expression that opens this newsletter and into the “practical”.

So, yes, to come back to where it all started and represented me and my kind of urbanist (and life) media at this year’s Congress for New Urbanism, held for the first time in my home state, in our largest and most connected example of ideal, people-scaled urbanism, in Charlotte.

For those of you who know North Carolina and Charlotte, you might be scratching your head a bit, because you might think that maybe Raleigh, Durham, Greensboro, Winston-Salem, Fayetteville, Asheville, or Wilmington might have been better. However, so many folks were there from all of our towns and cities statewide, plus, lots of well-known urbanists from around the world that now believe me when I say that North Carolina does have a special sauce when it comes to urbanism.

So, take a moment and listen to our panel. Coming soon, thanks to my new hires, I’ll not only be able to send these emails a little sooner, but I’ll be able to proof them better and enhance tools like Otter.ai and Grammarly that also come in handy to help with typos.

But sit and marinate on what was said, especially those of you who share my intersections and need to use your voice to lift us through these times of great change, but needed change.

By the Way

Here’s where I share other articles/videos that were noteworthy for me this week in this section. Apologies in advance for things behind a paywall. Some things I subscribe to and others I grab just before the wall comes down on me. I will start marking these articles and describing them.

I’m pleased to see that Howard University, has taken queer life on campus seriously, especially as a historically Black university. Even though I was grazing the doors of the closet, my time at UNCG was night and day and its legacy and continued support of the queer community is a light in a space where many of us still have to conform to conservative religiosity to make it through. (yet another reason why I was in the libraries and reading papers and watching movies during my years at State, because even though I was churchy back then, the church wasn’t cutting it in a lot of ways). And of course, living with Les in this county, at this historic moment is great, but we have a lot more to do to make Prince George’s County safe for LGBTQIA+ folks (and sadly, I heard the Post editors had to cut my remarks that said as much)

I love that this is a Black lady, with her smartphone, taking an interest in old buildings and their ads and photographing all the ones she finds in Baltimore, while also doing a pretty mundane admin job for the state of Maryland, that she just retired from.

And finally, speaking of Black women breaking barriers and succeeding in spite of them, check out the oasis and the elderly excellence of Ms. Major Griffin-Gracy! Don’t be afraid to move as a queer person, even if you get just a little measure of relief from the direct pain you’re going through. Be resilient and revolutionary, as Desmera Gatewood has encouraged us to do in her INDY Week article, especially in light of all the news that we’ve bearing this week.

On the Shelf, On the Playlist

My weekly recommendations of books, music, podcasts, and other pop culture

So my Age of Pleasure CD case and T-shirt came on Juneteenth. It’s just something about the pleasure of opening a CD case, reading the liner notes, and wearing the t-shirt of a favorite artist. But then again, Janelle and I are practically the same age (they’re 14 days older), and it might just be something about being millennials marking middle-age liberation, with childhood joy!

In addition, I came out of the bunker to support our new friend Britany Daniels and her book The Journey of A Black Queer Nurse. We also had a wonderful patio dinner nearby the venue at Brookland Pint with her and Saria her wife and we are looking forward to visiting y’all when we swing out to Chicago.

And good for Big Freeda to not only be opening a hotel, but blessing us with a full-length bop for the first time in about ten years.

Before You Go

In this special edition, I’m breaking down how you can contribute financially as we move forward into this next phase of expanding our team and adding our new editorial assistant. But first, some mutual aid announcements:

So, as I said before, I’m adding to my care team, starting with an Editorial and Research Assistant. If you want to apply, please do so ASAP, as I need immediate help with these tasks and if I read your resume and everything matches up, we will get started quickly! you can reply here with your resume and a cover note in your email. Also, I’m collecting resumes for future hires, so please reach out if you want to talk about vision and direction:

Hi all. It’s time for me to grow my work in Black urbanism, so I can get to my accessible queer feminist future.

I am looking for a part-time editorial and research assistant to aid in the following:

— Proofreading my newsletters, social media posts, grant applications, and other external client work.

— Uploading my newsletter to all the social channels on our designated drop day, usually Friday.

— Assisting with helping me pull articles and stories for my upcoming book and the weekly newsletter.

— Setting up and posting a weekly video podcast and correcting the transcribed audio and captions.

I will train on all functions, but experience with WordPress, Mailchimp, Patreon, Medium, Substack, Otter.ai, StreamYard, TikTok, Instagram, Facebook, Illustrator, and InDesign is helpful.

The rate is $250 weekly (5 hours per week at $50/hr). This is a contract position for now and this position is funded for July and August of 2023, with possible renewal and change of rate and status depending on funding.

You can send a resume and a cover letter to kristen@theblackurbanist.com, with the subject line Editorial Assistant.

These hires will help me bring more information to you, while still serving in all the roles I’ve taken on in the past few weeks, while also maintaining my health.

Plus, if you want to help me maintain these hires past September, let’s talk about advertising or becoming a paid Substack or Patreon subscriber! I’ll also be releasing an updated capabilities deck, in case you want to peruse that to book me for one of my service offerings.

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Mutual aid will continue to be part of any version of this platform I dream up.

For those of you who can and I know it’s tough out here for a lot of us, let’s keep lifting up our colleague who could still use our support with her partner’s chronic health challenges and of course Les’s endometriosis support and resource platform.

Project N95 is an amazing source of masks for everything that’s in the air that we have no business breathing and other testing and air purification equipment, at reasonable prices, that also go into helping distribute those supplies in communities that need them. Also, check into your community’s free mask distribution services if you have them. I’m continuing to include a link for the Entertainment Community Fund and for those in WGA to have relief while they take necessary action to get the funding they deserve for being one of the few industries that can’t be erased (at least for now).

And yes, my yarn-related fundraisers are still going strong, as they too see the value in community uplift and mutual aid. We are directly supporting LolaBean Yarn Co. and Dye Hard Yarns, two amazing yarn stores run by Black women that are fundraising to expand their physical equipment and footprint, and Knit the Rainbow, a group led by Black queer crafty folks that work to ensure that knitwear is donated to LGBTQIA+ youth, and raises awareness of queer/trans folks in the yarn and fiber space, is still ongoing.

This is how we as planners and makers can practice solidarity and uplift community groups. If not these campaigns, please find some that are closest to you. I also assume that you do have the financial means to do so as planners, but I know things can be tough for us. But solidarity is free and that starts with speaking up and sharing when you can.

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And now,

Until next time,

Kristen